Obama makes the sale

Democrats are about to surrender the House. Republicans are pinching themselves for getting a tasty tax deal with an estate-tax cherry on top. And liberals say President Barack Obama is the biggest sell-out since Bob Dylan went electric.

Yet for all that drama, Obama closed the most impressive sales job of his presidency a few minutes before the clock struck midnight on Thursday — winning House approval of a broadly popular tax-cut and unemployment extension opposed by the extremes of both parties.

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If the past two years have been spent ramming though Obama’s ambitious and often unpopular policy agenda, whatever the cost, the past two weeks have been an exercise in salesmanship and compromise — some would say capitulation — unlike anything he’s pulled off as president.

“He’s done a damn good job selling, as good as anything he’s ever sold,” Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), said with a chuckle, a few hours before the measure headed to Obama’s desk after passing with a 277-to-148 vote.

“My problem is trying to figure out exactly what he’s selling.”

In a word: himself.

While admitting the deal itself is profoundly flawed, Obama nonetheless achieved a moment at least of bipartisanship with Republicans, persuaded Democrats to accept diminished expectations and went a long way toward rebranding himself as Obama Classic — the circa-2008 politician at war with partisan discord. (See: Tax cut plan clears House, goes to Barack Obama)

“What you are seeing now is what he always wanted to be,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a longtime Obama ally. “In his heart, he’s a pragmatist, not an ideologue, and he’s a lot more personally comfortable with being able to engage Republicans and not be as divisive.”

And he’s not done. There’s at least the possibility that Obama will achieve two other victories with the cooperation of the GOP: passage of the New START treaty and repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military. (See: Democrats keep 'don't ask' on wish list )

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether the spirit of bipartisanship will survive in 2011, when a more conservative Congress is seated and the motivation for both sides to prove their willingness to compromise weakens as candidates gear up for the 2012 cycle.

During the run-up to the health care, stimulus and financial regulatory reform votes, Obama and his staff twisted arms, telling reluctant Democrats that a “no” vote would doom Obama’s presidency.

This time, with the GOP already in lock step behind him, the president and his team opted for a softer sales pitch to his own people — though one progressive, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), claims Obama’s team cast the tax extension as an existential vote. (See: Tax cut plan clears House, goes to Barack Obama )

With public opinion firmly behind a temporary extension of all cuts — even though voters preferred the cuts go only to the middle class — Obama embarked on a fear-factor public relations campaign that emphasized what would happen to the economy if the tax cuts expired, namely, a double-dip recession.

When Obama called Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), an opponent of the deal, earlier this week to make his case, he never directly asked for Cummings’s vote — just sketched a litany of horrors that would befall the economy if the measure failed.